The Cultural Center of the Philippines presents veteran cinematographer Neil Daza's photographs about the moving image taken within his 25 year career as director of photography. As someone who is known to dabble into multi-media, Daza's photographs represent the various worlds and interests he has grown to love and has given him recognition. His depiction of the moving image in his movies, television work and documentaries are universes of stories within themselves, even if they are essentially a still photograph and a millisecond part of a bigger narrative.

Daza is not just a stillman who appropriated someone else's composition; as director of photography for many of the films from which the pictures come from (Laro sa Baga, Dekada '70, La Vida Rosa, Yamashita: The Tiger's Treasure, Emir, Badil, Bwaya, Feng Shui) he helped create the scenes themselves - deciding on the moment a face will catch the light or who goes into darkness.

Before he joined the movies, he was an artist first (a UST Fine Arts student) and then a photo-journalist (he dodged shots during the 1987 Mendiola Massacre; snapped fully armed NPAs in the Cordillera); and the lessons he learned from these two disciplines appear frequently in his photographs. Many of his pictures look painterly, while the rest feel like they can land straight onto tomorrow's front pages.

Welcome into Neil Daza's frame of the staged and the documentary, shuttling between the real and the unreal.

NEIL DAZA, 25 TIMES : Images from Behind the Camera opens on August 3, 2017 Thursday 6pm at the Pasilyo Vicente Manansala (2F Hallway Gallery), Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas Blvd Pasay City. Exhibit runs until September 10, 2017. The exhibit may be viewed daily from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm.

Daza's exhibit is also a special feature in the Cinemalaya 2017 Independent Film Festival program.